Birmingham by Laura HallettIllustrator Laura Hallett has created this beautiful map of her home town of Birmingham. Her map re-creates the city by concentrating on it's rich and varied architecture, in a way which challenges any negative preconceptions.

"Birmingham is often derided for being a concrete mess that people just look to pass through but if they stop to have a look they will find a creative and constantly evolving place with a hotchpotch array of buildings and cultural areas that reflect its vibrant identity. I wanted to capture the broad variety of architectural styles which represent my hometown's cosmopolitan and enterprising history as well as its recent visual regeneration. "Beautiful work, Laura. Thank you! See more of Laura's illustration work right here: www.laurahallett.co.uk

Derby University illustration student, Jake Richardson, sent us this awesome map of his home suburb of Mickleover. Jake used the project as a way of developing his illustration style, as well as discovering more about somewhere he [thought] he knew so well.

"In this map I decided to record my local suburb of Mickleover in the UK. To do this I recorded many points of interest that indicated the character of this area. Also through this process I’ve found new locations and gained new insight into where I live. I’ve also used this as an opportunity to develop my method of producing illustrations; this involved creating each layer individually and layering them over one another."

Thanks for the great artwork Jake! Have a look around Jake's illustration portfolio here.

Esa sent us his amazing new map, which is an expanded map of where he belongs in Finland. You can see Esa's first map for our project here.Thanks for the update Esa!If you would like to contribute to our project, then get in touch! We're currently open again and looking for new map submissions to add to our amazing and expanding collection. All you have to do is create an image which answers our brief; Make a map of somewhere you belong. Send your map making to makemapsproject(at)gmail.com and follow us on twitter @MakeMaps

Talented illustrator Oliver McAinsh sent over a map of his own small corner of Berkshire. The map has wonderfully delicate appearance which gives special attention to the intricately drawn and positioned architecture.

“This image shows the area that I currently spend most of my time. I live in a small village called Cold Ash on top of a hill that leads down to the old market town of Newbury. It is the buildings which make this area so appealing to me, which is why I have chosen to focus on them instead of roads and street names. Most people don’t notice the history as they go about their daily lives, so I encourage them to take another look.”

A beautiful map, thanks Oliver! See more of Oliver's illustration portfolio here: www.olivermac.com and if you want to create a map of somewhere you belong get involved!

Up North by AnnarackAnnarack (aka Anna) sent over her beautifully drawn historic map of Northumberland. Her map touches on the idea that whilst a place may always be there, it's name may not...'My map depicts a much older image of Northumberland before Tyne and Wear existed in the North East of England. Northumberland was once completely joined to the Durham region according to the 125 year old atlas I was studying from. I live in Newcastle which is in Tyne and Wear but I prefer much older maps of the area. I collect antique maps and this illustration expresses my interest in the old and sometimes forgotten. The arrow pointing in the direction of Westmorland does not exist as a region anymore and Cumberland is now known as Cumbria. I always find it fascinating how our small island the UK has changed over the centuries and I'm sure in the future change will happen again and again.

(There are no spelling mistakes on my map, the map I used is from 1887 and the spellings of some of the places were different back then)'

Finnish carpenter and cartoonist Esa got in touch with his fun map of Kirkkosaari - his small island home.

I Live in a small island where small Muhos-river meets a big Oulu-river in Finland. There's about fifteen people living in the island and lot of silent "neighbours" (there's a graveyard on the island!).

Outlook by Abbey MasseyAbbey created this wonderfully constructed map of a detailed Maidstone as part of her university degree in illustration. Originally intended to expose the personality of the town, the map instead became more about the people who live there...

"This is a map of Maidstone, the town I moved to in order to study illustration at UCA. Through exploring the town over three years I met and observed some of Maidstone's most notable characters. These characters are the soul of my map. You hunt for them and with the key you see my point of view."

Faraway Land by Simple DrawingsEJ from Simple Drawings got in touch to send us her beautiful and delicate visualisation of homesickness. This is what her home looks like from far away..."I guess the reason for my sudden interest in maps is that the past years I have lived away from my home country. After a couple of years I have realised that there’s something comforting in maps. The way they very simply express things that can be huge in your own mind: you are here and this is the distance between these two places, etc."

Discovering a beautiful map of somewhere you've never visited can be incredibly intriguing, and it can also alter your next travel plans. When Benoit sent me his wonderful yellow and blue map it immediately made me want to visit his town, and discover the textures and typography all for myself.

"This is a map of Montpellier, a city in the south of France where I live. It's a very sunny city and the sea is not far away, which is why I chose to use two primary colours; yellow and blue. I have also represented the various neighbourhoods of the city in different lettering styles.

The city has a mix of ancient and contemporary architecture and is a very dynamic place due to all the students who come to study here from all over Europe.

Montpellier was featured in the New York Times article The 45 places to go in 2012 and that made me very proud"

This is a great map, thanks Benoit! Find out more about Benoit and see more of his colourful and playful illustrations over at his website: www.bnito-art.com

Relocating to a new town can be both exciting and challenging. On top of the stressful move are the practical tasks of learning your new environment. Diana got around this by compiling a map of her new home, Chelmsford, and mapping all of the new and exciting places around her.

"I moved to Chelmsford a few years ago from London, and was keen to find new creative people and places. I also recently opened was an independent book shop called Just Imagine story centre, where I helped to establish an illustrators group.

We set ourselves illustration projects to critique and increase our portfolio work. One brief was to celebrate Chelmsford as an exciting place to visit, especially with it's new city status.

This map was my personal response, logging all the great the places to find. And they are all relatively in the correct position, honest!"

Thanks Diana! See more of Diana's bold, bright and beautiful illustrations right here...www.dianamayo.com

Knowing where you belong is not always an easy decision, and for some it can mean more than one place. Our sense of where we belong can change over time, as is the case of the talented map maker, Anna Simmons. Anna's previous map for this project plotted a train journey; a route that linked two locations. This new map, Berwyn Books Postcard, began as a commissioned work, but soon became a true reflection of where she really calls home."[The map] was commissioned by a chap I met in the pub who is an Antiquarian bookseller and entrepreneur (I suppose you might call him). It has a local-literary theme and stars author's George Borrow and Dorothy Hartley as well as the famous Ladies of Llangollen!"Thanks Anna! For those unfamiliar with Anna's beautiful cartography, click, bookmark and commission here: www.cartographic.org.uk

Winchesterby Amber GraysonMapping your hometown is a great way to show other artists where you belong. It's the place you're likely to know best of all, and the years of accumulated quirks and treasures that make the place special offer an excellent subject for creative map making.

Amber has done exactly this in her map of where she belongs, Winchester:"This map of my home town of Winchester shares some of it's well known, and slightly more secret locations, as well as some of my favourites. I wanted to create a map different to the standard boring tourist ones, that reflected the creative and slightly eccentric feel of the city."This is great Amber! Perhaps the town council should adopt this map as their new tourist guide!

The excellent Peter Locke has an impressive illustration portfolio filled with beautifully composed portraits and wonderful mark making. Here, Peter creates a map inspired by the Minnesota town of Duluth...

"Duluth has become the destination of an imagined personal pilgrimage. It is a place that just seems to keep popping up in my life. I think I first heard reference to it on Nirvana's version of 'Lake of Fire'. A song that, as a teenager, I would proudly (badly) bash out on my guitar. Wailing along to the tape till my parents had simply had enough. I later discovered Duluth to be Bob Dylan's birth place. There alone is reason enough for a pilgrimage. I now carry my pencils and books in a finely crafted 'Duluth Pack' and have completely composed, in my head, the photographs I would take of the magnificent Aerial Lift Bridge. My interest has become an active pass time. Whilst waiting for the next link to expose itself I play detective. Seeking out small references in Dylan songs or discovering new things to become interested in trawling the LIFE magazine photo archives. This map is an attempt to plot some visual clues and points of interest for my pilgrimage and to serve as inspiration, pinned to the wall above my desk, whilst I toil away drawing, day dreaming and humming "Where do bad folks go when they die…"

My Rotterdam by Nelleke VerhoeffNelleke got in touch with the Maps project after seeing a blog post over in Pikaland. Her project was to make a physical map and this lovely image of her home town of Rotterdam is her response.

"I made this map whilst doing the Pika artist-bootcamp at Pikaland. This map is about my Rotterdam in Holland, the city where I live: My most favorite spots and activities."

Illustrator, educator, writer, felt-tip pen hoarder and studio buddy Holly Wales has made this beautiful Map of the Arctic circle. The map comes complete with a Walrus, Polar Bear and my favourite sea-bird: an Arctic tern.

"I find it really interesting that the way we imagine the world is relative to our position in it; the UK-centric weather maps I saw every night on TV when I was growing up is a long way from this map which focusses on the wildlife and position of the Arctic Circle, with just a small footnote to reference the UK. And I love Walrus!"

James created this map a year ago as part of his illustration course at Falmouth College of Art. The map describes his working process - perfect for this project!

"The image depicts a fictional map of my working process - strangely enough the image is a map of how I made the map! From the brain [ideas, concepts], through the brainstorm and thumbnail process, to the final idea [exports!] including all the contributing factors and inspiration along the way."

The multi-talented Luke Whittaker is one busy dude, but his work load has significantly decreased since completing this awesome map of his home. Luke explains the idea behind his map...

"To feel at home to me is to feel surrounded by a collection of little stories, each one present in all the objects and spaces in it. I wanted to represent that in some way with my current home, and, seeing as every object is different, or means something different, using a multitude of different info graphics seemed like an interesting way of exploring the idea. I also enjoyed the idea that these stories are somehow encoded like this, and you need to look closer to see them. It's been enjoyable making a record of the home too, even if a lot of the facts are half remembered and very possibly apocryphal."